In a motor vehicle, it is known to use deployable handles for the doors. Such a handle is in the retracted position inside the door most of the time, that is to say that it is flush with the body of the door so as to be virtually invisible, and it is in the deployed position only when a user needs to open the door from outside the vehicle.
There are two main advantages to using a deployable handle. The first advantage is improved aerodynamic performance due to better streamlining of a vehicle when the handles of its doors are in the retracted position. The second advantage concerns esthetics.
A deployable door handle generally incorporates an electronic module, called “door handle module”, comprising one or more sensors that make it possible for example to identify the need to deploy the handle, to lock or to unlock the door by detecting the approach of the hand or of a fob of a user.
This door handle module generally communicates information from sensors to a main electronic module, called “door module”, contained in the door of the vehicle. The door module is for example responsible for supplying electric power to the door handle module, for communicating therewith, and for driving a motor that makes it possible to deploy the handle. The door module therefore generally incorporates a position sensor for controlling this motor.
It is known to connect a door handle module to a door module using electrical cables so as to supply electric power to the door handle module and possibly to allow information to be exchanged between the two modules in a wired manner.
Such electrical cabling between the door module and the door handle module however entails numerous drawbacks. Specifically, besides the cost and the bulk that they constitute in the door handle module, the electrical cables impose significant mechanical integration constraints, since they have to adapt to the movement of the door handle module without hampering it.
To dispense with electrical cables, it is known for example to use magnetic-induction wireless electric power supply devices. However, such devices are not generally suitable for the case where the element to be charged is able to move in relation to the charging element. It is also known to use inductive sensors to determine the position of a target in relation to the sensor. For example, LVDT (acronym for “linear variable differential transformer”) sensors are based on the variation, on the basis of the position of an electrically conductive target, in the voltages induced in two secondary coils by the magnetic field generated by a primary coil. Lastly, there are numerous devices for wireless communication between two electronic modules, such as for example Bluetooth or NFC (acronym for “near-field communication”) technology. The proliferation of these devices in an electronic door handle module however goes against the miniaturization thereof and reducing its complexity and its cost.